Why Germans Love The Enigmatic Angela Merkel

She is "Europe's most dangerous leader", the "Iron Frau" who is "dragging us towards the abyss". Angela Merkel's
handling of the euro crisis, it is safe to say, has not been met
with approval on the world stage. Even at home, the German
chancellor recently had to dodge criticism by a group of prominent economists; one of
her own party members has gone public to complain about her
authoritarian style of running the Christian Democrats. Such is
the international anger about her apparent failure to save the
euro that the Economist, in its current
issue, asked for some sympathy for "Germany's long-suffering
chancellor" – while still criticising Merkel for her
indecisiveness.

And yet, in spite of the financial crisis going from bad to
worse, the German people are still firmly behind her. According
to a recent opinion poll by public broadcaster ARD, 70% of all Germans feel Merkel is the best person to
save the euro. A similar survey by news magazine Stern
confirmed her popularity; if they could vote for their head of
government directly, 49% of all Germans would choose Merkel.

The fact that the German economy has until now fared rather well
through the global downturn alone does not fully explain her
widespread popularity. Her own Christian Democratic party, for
example, has not benefitted from the country's economic stability
in the same way. According to the ARD survey, only 36% of Germans
would give Merkel's party their vote if they could go to the
polls now. In contrast, Merkel is perceived almost as a
non-partisan head of state rather than a career politician. To
put this into perspective, imagine Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron
Lady" Merkel is often compared to, enjoying the Queen's levels of
popularity.

This enthusiasm, to put it mildly, is puzzling. Even Merkel's
most ardent supporters would find it hard to argue that she is a
very inspirational or charismatic leader. How can such a
reserved, rational and uninspiring politician arouse such
widespread approval?

It's not just national stereotypes that tell us that Germans have
an aversion to flashy leaders. Since they followed Kaiser Wilhelm
II and Hitler into two disastrous world wars, Germans have
developed a tendency to vote for more tempered and earnest
leaders. In 1957, the Christian Democrats headed their election
campaign with the fabulously uninspiring slogan "No Experiments!"
– and won over 50% of the vote, still the highest result in
German postwar history.

Helmut Kohl, the first chancellor of a unified Germany, was the
embodiment of dependability and stability, and Merkel, the
country's first east German leader, fits this mould perfectly. To
be sure, Germany also had its share of showy politicians, like
the cigar-chomping Gerhard Schröder or the Green party's
patriarch, Joschka Fischer. But both toned down their personal
style once they were in government, Schröder losing his Cohibas
and Fischer changing his eco-activist get-up for dapper suits.
Only last year, defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg,
whose louche looks and brash rhetorical style had thrown Merkel's
rather distant cautiousness into sharp relief, had to
step down after he was convicted of plagiarism and lost his
PhD title.

Such flamboyance is still unthinkable with the current
chancellor. There is nothing remotely eccentric or extravagant
about Merkel; her biggest personal scandal of the last few months
was the fact that she wore the same dress to the opening of this year's
Bayreuth festival she had worn a few years before.

This down-to-earth approach is also reflected in Merkel's
cautious political style, which has often led the international
press to accuse her of lacking a clear vision for Europe's
future. However, this aversion to big ideas is a long-standing
part of German postwar political culture. Helmut Schmidt,
Kohl's Social Democratic predecessor, once
famously quipped that people with visions should go and see a
doctor. In a country that has experienced the two major political
ideologies of the 20th century – fascism and communism – not just
in theory but in its most harsh and real form, lofty idealism in
politics is often viewed with suspicion.

The most important reason for Merkel's popularity at home,
however, is neither the euro crisis nor German history, but
herself. Somehow, this female, middle-aged, childless physicist
from a Protestant background has convinced conservative fathers
from Catholic Bavaria, working-class women from west Germany's
old industrial areas and Berlin's intellectual bohemians alike
that she is the best representative of their interests. Merkel
has managed to remain an enigma to most Germans, a blank sheet on
to which they can project their personal idea of their leader.
Only last week she gave a rare personal interview to the Süddeutsche Zeitung's
weekend supplement: readers learnt that the biggest folly of the
chancellor's youth was ruining a brand-new tracksuit by "crawling
into a resinous tree cave" and that her dream dinner guest is
Spain's national coach Vincente del Bosque. But her sparse,
dispassionate answers still gave nothing away about her inner
workings and the paper concluded that "nobody really knows Angela
Merkel".

As her approval rating shows, this taciturnity is working in her
favour. In our media-centred political culture, full of spin
doctors, photo ops and publicity stunts, the most effective
public relations strategy seems to be to keep things private.